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Women’s Group and the Clothing

In previous years there was a group of women in the village that had come together and had the idea to start a business. In this the women were going to make clothing and sell them to help them earn a profit. Donations such as cloth and other materials were provided from Compassionate Journeys in hopes that this idea would take off. Unfortunately, with the lack of motivation and organization it never even began. However, during our time here many of us have found a strong passion in wanting to empower the women of Tafi Atome. Especially a certain few of the volunteers who have taken this project and gave it the guidance it was missing. Hannah, from Global Scholars, and another volunteer, Kiki, who is also from Florida State University decided to take the initiative to help them get started. They had many meetings with Queen Mother (the woman chief of the village and also the head of the women’s group) to figure out how to begin. After a few miscommunications they finally all met one morning at 6:30am and began making the cloth. I was able to witness this and it definitely takes a lot more work than it seems. They would take plain white cloth, put wax on it, stamp it to make designs, then dye it. After that long process they would have to let it dry before they took it to the seamstress. Now only a week later they have made so many beautiful dresses, headbands, scarves, purses, crop tops and mini skirts. It is amazing what a little motivation and the determination from the volunteers can do. We all hope to work together to bring these clothing and accessories back to the United States to sell them and give all of the profits back to the women here in Tafi Atome.